Source Repositories and Revision Control

KDE uses a central online repository to store our Source Code and to track changes made to the code. Currently, KDE is in the middle of migrating our main repository from Subversion (svn) to Git, so some software modules currently live in Git while others are still only available from Subversion. This means you will need to become familiar with both systems.

Obtaining The Source Code

There are three main ways of doing this:

Directly access the KDE Source Repository using either Git or Subversion to copy the source code as it currently is with a full history of all changes. In Git this is know as Cloning the repository, in Subversion it is Checking-Out the code. This is most commonly done if you want to actively develop the code. The git repositories are available at projects.kde.org.

Download a tarball snapshot of the Source Repository to bootstrap a Git clone or Subversion checkout. This is a good option if you have a slow or unreliable internet connection. See the Source Snapshots page for more details.

Download a tarball snapshot of just the code as at a given time or release. This is most commonly done if you do not want to develop the code itself but just want to use it for a stable system installation, testing a release, or developing applications outside of the KDE SC.

Note that Checkout has a different meaning in Git than it does in Subversion.

KDE Software Modules

Within the KDE Source Repository the code is organized in Projects and Modules. There are also a number of high-level groupings of the Modules.

Qt KDE

The Qt KDE module is a clone of the latest Qt release with patches made by KDE to fix specific issues before they are available in a Qt release.

KDE Support

The KDE Support group is a set of tools and libraries that have been developed by KDE and that various KDE modules depend upon but are not themselves dependent on the KDE Development Platform. These libraries can thus be used by non-KDE applications without having to rely on KDE as well.

KDE Workspace

The KDE Workspace group (aka Plasma) is defined as those KDE Modules that are needed to run a workspace, such as the Desktop or Netbook. This group is not needed to run a KDE Application under another workspace such as Gnome or Windows.

KDE Workspace (kde-workspace) Git

KDE Base Applications (kde-baseapps) Git

KDE Applications

The KDE Applications group is defined as those KDE modules built on the KDE Development Platform that are hosted by the KDE infrastructure and are released as part of the regular KDE Release Cycle, i.e. they are part of the KDE SC.

KDE Accessibility (kdeaccessibility) svn

KDE Admin (kdeadmin) svn

KDE Artwork (kdeartwork) svn

KDE Bindings (kdebindings) git/svn

KDE Examples (kdeexamples) git

KDE Education (kdeedu) git

KDE Games (kdegames) svn

KDE Graphics (kdegraphics) git

KDE Network (kdenetwork) svn

KDE Multimedia (kdemultimedia) svn

Plasma Addons (kdeplasma-addons) git

KDE PIM Runtime (kdepim-runtime) Git

Kontact and Kontact Touch as part of KDE PIM (kdepim) Git

KDE SDK (kdesdk) svn

KDE Toys (kdetoys) svn

KDE Utilities (kdeutils) svn

KDE Web Development (kdewebdev) svn

KDE Extragear

The KDE Extragear group is defined as those applications built on the KDE Development Platform that are hosted by the KDE infrastructure and have a stable release but are not part of a KDE Module and are not released as part of the regular KDE Release Cycle, i.e. they are not part of the KDE SC.

KDE Extragear (extragear) Git/svn

KDE Playground

The KDE Playground group is defined as those applications built on the KDE Development Platform that are hosted by the KDE infrastructure but have not yet had a stable release and may never be released.

KDE Playground (playground) git/svn

KDE Review

The KDE Review group is defined as those applications that are being reviewed for inclusion in a KDE Module or KDE Extragear, usually moving over from KDE Playground.